A Safe Home Quarantine Digital Solution for COVID-19: A Proof-of-Concept Study

Introduction: Malaysia implemented home quarantine for COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms in response to the upsurge in the daily confirmed cases. Nevertheless, monitoring of vital signs while in quarantine is important. The aims were to assess the functionality and usability of a newly developed home quarantine digital solution (CODIQ-My) for remote monitoring. Methodology: COVID-19 patients with mild clinical symptoms designated to a low-risk quarantine centre were selected and instructed on CODIQ-My Solution which incorporates 3 elements; i. patient mobile application ii. vital signs biosensor iii. centralized monitoring dashboard Twice daily, the patients reported their symptoms as well as their vital signs - body temperature (T), oxygen saturation (SpO2), and heart rate (HR) using the biosensor and mobile application. Individual patient information was then captured in the dashboard. The consolidated data was analyzed to test system performance and functionality. Results: A total of 31 mild COVID-19 patients from MAEPS were recruited into the study between 21 May and 23 June 2021. During the study period, 193 (98.0%) check-in attempts were performed and recorded 455 (78.6%) vital readings were successfully and 3 (9.7%) patients failed to use the CODIQ-My due to technical delay. A total of 472 alerts were triggered, with 207 (43.9%) for device communication failure, 149 (31.6%) for user photo mismatch, 64 (13.6%) for quarantine breach, 32 (6.8%) for abnormal vital signs, and 20 (4.2%) for biosensor failure. Discussion/Conclusion: Emerging technology such as validated biosensors and artificial intelligence algorithms can enhance patient management in a pandemic. Our study indicated that the CODIQ-My solution is a secure and robust system with the ability to detect warning signs in quarantine patients. Health care providers can monitor patients remotely and provide fast and targeted treatment plans apart from monitoring the physical movements of these patients with its geofencing ability. Further studies are planned to enhance the biosensor performance by incorporating an infrared temperature sensor and improvising the existing photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor. [Disclaimer: Abstract text might vary slightly from what is displayed in the e-poster]
This poster was submitted to the 14th National Conference for Clinical Research (NCCR) on August 18-20 2021. https://nccrconference.com.my/